What PaycheckPal Does
PaycheckPal is a free online calculator that shows you what you actually take home after taxes and deductions. You enter your salary or hourly rate, your state, your filing status, and any pre-tax deductions like a 401(k) or health insurance — and the calculator does the rest. You see your gross pay, your federal and state income tax withholding, FICA (Social Security and Medicare), and your final net pay, broken down line by line.
The site also includes specialized calculators for hourly-to-salary conversions, raises, overtime, bonus withholding, and the real cost of 401(k) contributions after tax savings.
Why We Built It
Most people see their paycheck and have no real idea where the missing money went. Pay stubs use cryptic codes, payroll systems hide the math, and the calculators that already exist tend to be ugly, slow, or buried behind sign-up walls. PaycheckPal exists to give you a clear, instant answer to one practical question: what do I actually keep?
We also wanted to make a calculator that respects your time and your privacy. No accounts, no email captures, no tracking pixels selling your salary data. You type, you click calculate, you get an answer. That's the whole experience.
How We Calculate
All calculations use 2025 IRS tax brackets, the 2025 standard deduction amounts, the current Social Security wage base ($176,100), and Medicare rates including the additional 0.9% surtax on earnings above $200,000. State income tax calculations use published 2025 marginal bracket rates for all 50 states (the nine states without an income tax are correctly handled as well).
Withholding is an estimate. Your actual paycheck can differ based on W-4 adjustments, local taxes, employer-specific deductions, and other factors. The breakdown is meant to give you a clear picture of where your money is going, not to replace your employer's payroll department or a tax professional.
Who Runs the Site
PaycheckPal is an independent project — not affiliated with the IRS, any state tax authority, any employer, or any payroll provider. We built it because we wanted a tool like this to exist, and we keep it free by displaying a small number of ads from Google AdSense.
Have feedback, found a bug, or want to suggest a feature? Get in touch on our contact page.
Updates
We update tax brackets and rates annually as the IRS and states publish new figures. State tax data is reviewed periodically; if you spot something that looks wrong for your state, please let us know.